Gaikai Game Streaming to Launch In December

This past July, Gaikai announced their game streaming service, originally saying that it would be launched in September. Gaikai’s service appears to be aimed at competing with OnLive (currently offering a free trial subscription), and is now set to be launched in December. As of now Gaikai has no plans to charge a monthly fee for its service, which could be a leading factor in OnLive’s decision to ultimately drop monthly fees as well.

EA has partnered with Gaikai, but so far it is the only major gaming company to do so. Gaikai of course hopes to obtain many more major companies as partners as well, and is offering several intriguing features that could give them a slight advantage over OnLive.

But sinced both OnLive and Gaikai’s steraming services are new, there are no set conventions to adhere to. And the relative proximity of their launch dates, coupled with the similarity of services offered between the two companies ensures that both services are sure to be constantly updated and improved upon in the spirit of competition. And since constant competition keeps companies on their toes, hopefully this means that both Gaikai and OnLive will be producing high quality services.